Doom's space marine protagonists are some hearty fellows, carrying some 80 pounds of weapons, medkits and ammo boxes effortlessly while taking on demons from hell. In last night's inaugural Mythbusters video game episode, Adam and Jamie build a real-life
Doom level to see if it can be done.

The first video game-centered episode in the Discovery Channel show's 12-year history centered on two very different titles —
Doom and Fruit Ninja. For the latter, sword-fan Jamie took a stab at slicing fruit thrown to him by jugglers with a samurai sword. It actually went pretty well, even if he only achieved around half of his 99-point game score in real life.

But the main event was the show's Doom experiment: Can a space marine really carry nine weapons, some medkits and a couple ammo packs — some 80 pounds of additional weight — through a level without slowing down? To find out, they built a Doom level in real life.

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They found the perfect location in an abandoned military base. Then they tapped id Software's creative director Tim Willits to help ensure their creation was up to spec. They filled the level with folks portraying monsters, and it was game on.

At least at first it was game on. In the initial run-throughs, in which dropping weapons was allowed, things went great. When Jamie and Adam tried going through without ever dropping equipment, their times doubled.

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But Jamie and Adam are not space marines, so they recruited a man who was closer to that peak of physical perfection — former football player and mixed martial artist Brendan Schaub. Brendan's control time of four minutes beat both hosts by a minute easy, as one would expect, but his real run, in which he had to carry every piece of equipment?

A mere three seconds slower.

So the next time someone questions whether or not a space marine could carry nine weapons at once while surviving a demon attack, punch them gently but firmly in the neck. It's what I imagine Brendan Schaub might do.